From Afar
by EmberFall
Summary: Snowspirit watches her like they watch their ancestors. He loves her, but Windclan is at a point where he is not worthy for her love; he is content with being her best friend. when an unexpected arrangement is made, he must decide if living a life without his most valued thing is worth the useless effort. A One-shot by EmberFall and Petalmist!


**Hey! EmberFall for a One-shot!**

**Hey, guess what!?**

**NOT MY IDEA! This One-shot is for one of my evil partners-in-crime, Petalwish, who I totally dedicate this story to! (can you dedicate something to someone if they're the ones who came up with it…? O.o Well… I AM!)**

**Okay, Warriors belongs to Erin Hunter and neither of us, so… yeah. **

**N'Joy this One-shot!**

Snowspirit had loved this one she-cat for a long time.

Her name was Petalmist, the most beautiful she-cat in Windclan. Her fur was the most stunning shades of pink, like the little flowers that grew in the tall grasses where they hunted rabbits. Those eyes that she had… they were just like the sky on the rare cloudless days that they would have off from their hunting duties and sun themselves together.

Well, him, Petalmist, and of course, the five or so toms that clung to her pelt like burrs.

Windclan was going through an extreme shortage of cats. Every kit was a blessing these days, only four she-cat warriors in the clan, compared with the eight toms. Even when kits were born, they were all toms, like Sunbeam's had been. Almost every tom was after the beautiful rose-colored she-cat, and although that was no less than she deserved, it was not because she was an amazing cat with a strange sense of humor and even stranger –but funny- sense of perception. They saw her as a way to create little she-kits.

Snowspirit was the only cat that didn't intend to have kits with Petalmist, instead having the honor of being her only friend. The other she-cats scorned her, saying that she would end up having more kits than cats at a gathering, the way things were going.

Grasswind, Petalmist's father, was the worst of all. Her mother had just disappeared one day, soon after Petalmist had weaned off of her milk and never returned, leaving the she-cat with a bitter father Starclan-bent on making sure his daughter followed his presumed dead mate's footsteps to the clawmarks.

"He wants me to mate with Redmoon," she spoke sadly one day while they were hunting. Her pelt was glimmering in the setting sun; the tall grass bending just above her head and making her look like a spirit of Starclan.

"Who do _you_ want to be mates with?" he had replied.

"_That's just it!_ I'm not ready to have a mate! You and I have only been warriors for less than two moons; doesn't it bother you that you will be held back, taking care of a bunch of kits, instead of moving forward?"

Snowspirit looked at her, his eyes wide. He had known that she hated the fact that they were after her for her ability to bear kits, not her personality or even her looks.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I do want to have kits one day, just… not yet. I don't want to become a warrior just to be stuck in the Nursery until the seasons have changed and I become part of the soil,"

He blinked as he was snatched out of his memories and back to the present. He was supposed to be training one of Sunbeam's kits, Drypaw, how to collect moss, since he had just become an apprentice, but it seemed that the dusty tan tom knew what to do. Padding back to the entrance, he pushed his small, lithe white form past the dry, crackly bracken that was brown and leafless and needed to be changed.

The Windclan camp was a small dip in the ground full of grass, both tall and short, and little groups of nests lying out in the open. Being Windclan, they all found it easiest to sleep where they could see the stars; only when it was raining would they go into the small holes in the bracken surrounding the camp and rest.

"Hey Snowspirit, we need to talk," Petalmist whispered, sounding frightened.

"What do you—ah!" the rose-colored she-cat gripped his tail and pulled him back to the entrance, where he just got back from, and yanked him out.

He followed her quietly as she fumed, getting even more angry –or scared- with every step, until she was radiating emotions so strong Snowspirit winced.

She finally spoke, once they were near the scent borders with the twoleg place, which wasn't for another long run's away.

"…Grasswind has come to an agreement with one of the toms. Wildrun will be my mate by tomorrow."

He swallowed. Wildrun, a huge calico tom that towered over everyone else, was by far the worst material for a mate. Snowsprit didn't want to know how Grasswind had made his daughter a piece of prey to be traded for herbs or land.

"What… What are you going to do about it?"

"If I knew I wouldn't be asking you!"

"I…" was this really the right time? No, it wasn't. It would be so horrible and selfish of him to confess his love to her right now, when she was so stressed.

"I think you should do what your heart tells you to. You're a beautiful, unique, open-minded cat that I think any tom that walks this ground would be lucky to even be looked at. You carry with you the ability to lighten up a blind cat's day, to make the sourest cat laugh, the sickest apprentice feel good enough to run to Fourtrees. You have saved so many cats just by looking at them… including me."

Oh, great Starclan, he just told himself he would not confess! If that was not a confession, then he had no idea what was. Petalmist looked him, eyes wide with unshed tears. She looked torn, confused, lost. Snowspirit didn't blame her in the slightest.

The rose colored she-cat opened her mouth.

'_Woof!' _

The barking of a dog made them both shoot up faster than the stars that sometimes streaked the sky.

Snowspirit paused for one more moment, making sure to confirm the heavy panting and growls.

"Petalmist let's go! We can't take on a dog by ourselves."

He was already getting ready to bound away on his long, Windclan bred legs, but she was watching the horizon with an intent he had never seen on her before.

"Petalmist, come _on_!"

"…Yeah. I'm going to go check it out. Come if you want,"

He watched with his mouth agape as her pelt swished in the tall grass and disappeared from view. What was he supposed to do?! His mind was telling him to run like the Darkforest was on his tail back to the camp to warn everyone, but his heart…

"Petalmist, wait up!"

He runs blindly through the grass, flinching and wincing as the blades of grass draw blood from his speeds. His paws burn, cut up already enough to leave a trail of blood as he shoots towards the rose colored she-cat's fear scent.

There is no noise, besides him whipping himself through the blades of grass that felt like claws. The sun was setting, casting the sky a bloody red. Oh Starclan, his heart was beating so fast he was sure the cats back at the camp could hear.

He breaks through those horrible blades of grass, finally, to greet a sight that brought his heart to his throat.

Petalmist is staring into a dog's eyes, it's very head bigger than her whole body.

"Petalmist, you hare-brain, _run_," he screeched as he launched himself at the dog, latching his claws deep into soft flesh, it seeming easier because of the fierce protectiveness he felt for her. It drove him, and even as he was flung back into the grass, he emerges hissing, lips drawn back in a growl that was rising even higher than the dog's.

Petalmist, eyes wide, took his order and ran away, leaping into the grasses…. _Farther away from the camp._ What in Starclan was she doing?!

Giving a swipe to the massive dog's muzzle, making it yelp, he ran after her, a mixture of worry and irritation surging as he followed her.

He hears a blood-chilling screech.

"No!…_PETALMIST!_,"

His heart is breaking. His love, his salvation, his… _everything_… hanging limp in the jaws of a second dog. Her eyes search for him lifelessly, her small chest heaving as her body drops more than a tail-length to the ground. The dog pads away, seemingly content, and it was beyond lucky that…

He shook his head and ran over to the blood-soaked she-cat. Her chest is heaving, torn so badly that tears started to leak from blurry eyes. She was too badly hurt.

"Why… Petalmist… don't-don't leave me. I can't live without you. Don't die; we'll run away together, we can…" he choked on his own voice.

She smiled with tired eyes.

"Y-you told me to listen to my heart. It's telling me that you would've been mine. I don't think I would've minded if I had to leave my duties for a couple of seasons, i-if you were the father…"

Why was she doing this to him?! What had he done, for her to be hurt like this? To feel this way?

"Petalmist… I love you. Please don't leave me! I want… I want you to be happy. I want to be the one who makes you happy… I want to be happy with you. I want to be an old elder with you, to watch kits… with your color and my eyes become leaders and deputies and senior warriors and medicine cats… _please_. Don't… don't…"

Her chest had stopped heaving halfway through his outburst, the other half of his begging coming out in ragged sobs and yowls. Petalmist is now a cold, bloody body. Her soul is now one of the stars that are starting to appear. She is with Starclan now, among those orbs of light, and he is left where he was before.

Looking from afar, as close to her then as he is to her star now.

_No… _

"_NO!" _his voice tears, breaks, and he still keens. He mourns, even as the other warriors finally come and try to drag him back from her body, which is being inspected with pity. They feel no remorse, no sadness, as they carry her body back to the camp; they see a she-cat who got herself killed before she could give her kits to the clan.

He sobs as they have to carry his body just like they are with hers; he was stubbornly keeping his tail twined with her limp and lifeless one. The camp is in no mood to mourn, instead hiding her body, mangled and dirty, under a couple of huge dock leaves, next to the area where they buried their dead.

He just wanted to…

"Snowspirit? I need you to take these herbs. They will help with the shock." Their Medicine cat, a she-cat who he didn't bother to name, pulled him to his paws. He was not there. He was with Petalmist.

"Yes. Can you please get me some water-soaked moss?"

"Of course; go sit down in my den, and I will be back with water and some more herbs in a moment…"

He pads, unaware of the pity glances from the she-cats and angry glares from the toms. To them it was all his fault. Why had he dragged her out when she was to get to know Wildrun better? What had they been doing? Did he say something to her?

He pushes past blades of grass, paws starting to bleed again at the caked over pads snapped and split. They leaked blood like he leaked tears. He sits down, his breaths are shaky, but he shakes his head and gets back up. He takes an inward sigh, and starts searching. They were all taught the smell so they never mistook them for something else.

There they were.

He takes them out of the tightly wrapped bundle and eats them all.

Every last little red berry.

"Snowspirit, what are you…"

He felt his legs go weak, and soon after collapsed onto the ground, a slight smile on his face. Finally, he could be with the one who had been so far away.

He would make sure he no longer just looked.


End file.
